LL4S2      Half Unit
E-Commerce Law

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Availability

This course is to introduce students from a legal background to the specialised legal structure which surrounds e-commerce. It focuses on the specific legal challenges an e-commerce start-up must navigate to begin trading, offering practical insights into real-world problems and regulatory demands.

The course is structured in three parts. The first part lays the legal foundation, covering core issues such as applicable law, jurisdiction, and the formation of electronic contracts. Students will examine how traditional legal concepts apply—or fail to apply—in an online commercial environment where borders are blurred, and transactions are often automated.

The second part turns to one of the most critical aspects of e-commerce: the drafting and interpretation of Terms of Service (T&S). Through practical exercises, students will draft, analyse, and critique service terms with a focus on consumer protection, data handling (collection and sharing), licensing of intellectual property, and emerging legal concerns posed by AI integration. These sessions aim to build the skills needed to produce legally sound, user-facing documents that are enforceable and compliant with multiple regulatory regimes.

The third part of the course focuses on the infrastructure behind e-commerce platforms—specifically, the use of cloud services and related cybersecurity concerns. Topics include legal obligations related to cloud infrastructure, regulatory frameworks for cybersecurity, and the practical impact of compliance on operations and resilience.

By the end of the course, students will have a clear understanding of the legal frameworks surrounding e-commerce and will be prepared to identify and address the legal barriers a digital business faces. This course equips future lawyers and advisors with the tools to support innovation and compliance in online commerce, from start-up to scale-up.

20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students will complete a practical drafting exercise, preparing Terms of Service (T&S) tailored to a specific e-commerce business model (maximum 2,000 words). The submission must include one annex outlining the student’s drafting plan and a working bibliography supporting their approach. All students are expected to complete this formative assessment, along with a series of seminar-based practical exercises.

Murray: Information Technology Law: The Law and Society 5ed (OUP, 2023)

Chris Reed & Andrew Murray, Rethinking the Jurisprudence of Cyberspace (Edward Elgar, November 2018)

Lodder & Andrew Murray (eds) EU Regulation of E-Commerce: A Commentary 2ed (Edward Elgar, 2022)

Millard: Cloud Computing Law (OUP, 2021).
 

Exam (100%), duration: 150 Minutes in the Spring exam period